


Peggy Carter is a Woman of Faith

by Whowantstoknow259



Series: Everyone is gay, almost nobody dies. [2]
Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, M/M, Mild Smut, Period Typical Attitudes, against the irish, one racial slur, vaguely implied threats of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-17 23:41:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5889616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whowantstoknow259/pseuds/Whowantstoknow259
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peggy would fight the whole damn world for Angie Martinelli, one boy from Brooklyn did not scare her. An Au where Angie and Peggy both grow up together in Brooklyn.</p><p>**would make more sense if you read the first one but I guess you don't have to**</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peggy Carter is a Woman of Faith

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not done with this universe, there's gonna be a plot with resolution and everything. Also I've been listening to Take Me to Church by Hozier a lot.

Peggy is five and everything is right. She’s surrounded by three of her five favorite people, Mam, Father, and Angie (the other two were Mr. and Mrs. Martinelli, Angie’s parents.) Not just surrounded, for once her Father is not just giving Peggy attention, he’s teaching her things and Peggy is determined to learn as best as she can. Father, Angie, and Peggy are all standing in the middle of small living room of their Brooklyn apartment. He’s positioning Angie and Peggy, showing them how to best clench their small fists with the thumbs outside and across the fingers. 

“Right now girls listen to me, I want you to remember this if I teach you nothing else. You’re small and you’ll be smaller than most bigger and meaner people for the rest of you lives, you’re gonna be in situations where you haven’t got a choice but to fight a fight you can’t win.” His eyes go distant and his voice trails off and Peggy knows that he’s remember the war that happened before she was born, but he blinks and then continues “When you know you can’t win, you gotta fight dirty. There’s no use in dying a noble death.” 

Peggy’s Mam makes a sound from the small kitchen where she’s preparing the Sunday dinner, but Peggy’s Father ignores it.

“Alright Peggy, you first and then Angie” He puts up a palm, “I want you to swing and put all your weight into it, hit my hand. If this was a real fight go for the gut or between the legs, but try and hit my hand.”

When her fist connects, Peggy’s father is so proud she’s knows she’ll never stop trying to land punches.

-

Most people underestimated Angie in a way that made Peggy furious but also gave her a feeling like she had an ace in hole that the whole world didn’t know about. From the time they were six years old people know that Peggy Carter packed a punch, they just didn’t realize that the real threat was Angie Martinelli, because you’d never see her coming. Peggy’s father always taught her to protect her blind spots but that was easy when your biggest blind spot could defend herself.

The first time that Peggy realized how much she loved Angie, Peggy was ten years old. She had got out late from school, detention and five whacks with a paddle by the teacher, and on top of that Johnny the boy who had tugged out Angie’s ribbon and pulled her hair had gotten off scot free. So Peggy sore emotionally and physically and just wanted to mope her way home, but sitting on the steps in the school yard was Angie. Her ribbon was tied back up and she was studiously reading from her primer. Her golden curls, a little flat from the long day, hung over her shoulders and swayed gently in the breeze. 

Some poetic part of Peggy, that she didn’t even know she had, wished she was a painter or a photographer and had the time to set up and capture this perfect moment. The sight of Angie waiting for her, Angie waiting for Peggy like she’d done a hundred times before but for some reason today felt like a suckerpunch to the stomach.

Then Angie looked up, smiled and stood up gathering her things and the moment was past and Peggy could breath again. For one horrible second she was tongue-tied trying to answer Angie’s greeting and then she wasn’t and things slid back into place except for the this new secret that Peggy had just discovered about herself. She loved Angie, she’d always loved Angie, but now she might be in love with Angie. 

It was not some childhood, or maybe it was but also something more, because as Peggy and Angie left giggling girlhood and started to become, as their mothers and teacher put, ‘young ladies.’ The feeling didn’t fade, instead it grew and it crystallized and it became something that Peggy secretly thought of as the best part of her pugilist self.

The thing that most people misunderstood about Peggy was the idea that she was fighter, which she was, but not at her core, at her core Peggy was only one thing and that was a true believer. When she raged, lashed out at the world, split her knuckles, and earned bruises, it wasn’t because she loved fighting, it was because the world wasn’t being the way that she believed it should be. Some ridiculous part of her genuinely believed that she could punch it back into shape. Peggy believed in justice, believed in honor, believed in starting what you finished, but most of all Peggy believed in Angie.

Peggy wasn’t the type to pine, had nothing to pine over really. Angie might have the world fool, might be slippery behind a grin but Peggy could always see through any lie even the ones she told herself. As well as she knew Angie, it took Peggy a minute to figure it out. Why any time it seemed as if Peggy might mention her feelings, Angie slid away from it, she refused to be pinned down, refused to acknowledge way things were between them. The way things Peggy knew things were.

At first she was hurt, didn’t understand why Angie wouldn’t want Peggy to talk about how she felt. Peggy wasn’t stupid, she knew it wasn’t like they could go steady and walk down the halls hand in hand but they already had this little secret so why didn’t Angie want to share it between them. Then Peggy sees it. Sees the fierce protectiveness in Angie’s eyes and understands.

-

It’s a Saturday and they were at the drugstore counter drinking egg creams that they sometimes get on the house from the soda jerk Mr. Lowery, for sweeping up and organizing the shelves. It was their last year of high school, and between the harder work and the part time jobs it had been a while since they had just enjoyed a lazy day at the soda fountain.

Peggy was distracted, Angie was running her finger up the side of the glass wiping up the drips from where the drink fizzed over and then licking her fingertips. She did this several times, licking her bottom lip after she was finished then glancing at Peggy with her dimpled cheeky grin. It was...well it was hard to think about anything but fingers and lips and pink tongues, the sweet chocolate milk from the egg cream made Peggy’s mouth feel sticky and dry at the same time.

Peggy didn’t notice Roy Malone come in until he sat down next to Angie and slung an arm around her shoulders. Roy was from the neighborhood, a couple years older than Angie and Peggy and the kinda guy with a reputation. Peggy doesn’t remember anyone saying anything specifically about guys like Malone, but every girl in the neighborhood knew better than to be caught alone with him. The idea that he thought he could just put his hands on Angie, on any girl, but especially her Angie made Peggy so mad she almost smashed her glass on the side of his head. The only thing that made her pause enough to be strategic about how she was going to hurt the man was the fact that his arm around Angie made it difficult for her to get a clean shot at the mick.

Before she could say anything Angie was gingerly removing the arm from around her shoulders and giving the smile that Peggy had nicknamed the keep walking bucko smile. She was saying something about her big brothers that Peggy wasn’t really following. 

“How about we get out of here Pegs?” Angie asked, drawing Peggy out of her rage slightly, “I told my Pop we’d be back in time to help Mama with dinner.” 

Peggy knew what she was doing, reminding Malone of all the male relatives that were possibly just down the street. 

“Okay, let’s get back then.” Peggy agreed, mostly just to get away from man who was leering at the two of them. 

Malone stood up and reached around Angie to grab Peggy’s wrist, effectively stopping them both and said “Oh come on dollface, just cause your friend’s got a curfew doesn’t mean you and me gotta go our separate ways.”

Before Peggy could even react Angie had stamped down his foot and elbowed him hard in the gut. He let go of Peggy and fell over hard. Angie leaned over him and told him not to make her call her big brothers on him, then she linked her arms with Angie and primly walked them out of the drugstore. Her face sent in a stubborn look but she couldn’t hide the fierce protectiveness in her eyes.

That’s when it clicked, when it suddenly made sense to Peggy why Angie wouldn’t talk about what was between them, why it made her so slippery and careful. Peggy isn’t sure how to proceed from there but as it turns out all it takes is a tijuana bible that she had found and shown to Angie as a lark. It wasn’t Peggy’s intention that the book push her and Angie over the edge to where Peggy has been waiting a long to time to be, but happy accidents and all that. 

Now Angie not only lets her whisper to her in the dark and when they’re alone, but she whispers back sometimes, i love you, you’re so beautiful, i love you, you’re everything, i love you, i love you, i love you. Back and forth in the dark, and when no one is around around they can kiss and once a week Angie falls asleep in Peggy’s arms and Peggy is drunk off it. Like spending half her life starving of thirst to fall into a fresh spring where she can drink until she’s full for the rest of her life. 

Angie’s so furtive so worried, and she’s right, the way they’re living now isn’t sustainable but why borrow trouble from tomorrow when Peggy is so happy, so blissfully content. Especially after they move into the apartment of their own. Peggy can pretend that they’re something proper, she becomes one of the weekend operators at the phone company and is making proper money so she can keep her girl (her girl!) safe. They go home once a week for family dinners, their two families together and Peggy cannot remember a time where everything in her life is so right, not since she was five years old and everything she loved could fit into one room.

\- 

Then one day everything is on shaky ground. Peggy is at work, when she notices things that do not add up, she’s a telephone operator, this is a telephone company but maybe that is not all that it is. She’s got a natural curiosity, innate need to solve puzzles and she does a little snooping, asks a few questions, doesn’t realize she opened a can worms until she’s sitting in front of the desk of a man named Howard Stark.

He questions Peggy asks her all sorts of things, never directly says it but Peggy thinks that he thinks that she might be some sort of spy. Then he lets her go, tells her to go home, lets her know that she’s being watched until they can verify her identity and that the only reason she isn’t on her way to prison is because if she is innocent he would hate to see ‘a dame with legs like hers hold a grudge against him.’

Peggy wants to fight him right then and there, but doesn’t because she doesn’t want to go to prison. 

Then when she gets home, before she can even tell Angie about the whole situation, Angie announces that they now have dates that very day with some fellas. Which Peggy should have seen coming because it’s not like Angie has been subtle about her need to proactively keep them a secret. But it feels like a suckerpunch.

It’s all a bit much.

Peggy lost her temper and said some things she didn’t mean and couldn’t take back because the men were there. 

The guy, Steve, was so small, shorter than Peggy herself and scrawny, but he was polite and friendly. He had a special earnest quality about him that made Peggy take a shine to him, the more they talked, the more they felt like kindred spirits. After two blocks he had drawn Peggy into a conversation about politics abroad and it felt so refreshing for someone to take her seriously. Peggy didn’t let go of her irritation at Angie, it was tangled up unreasonably with her fear over what had happened at her work, and if she was being honest she was feeling petty. Instead she resolved to enjoy Steve’s company, because he was good company, until the evening was over. 

Halfway through the picture there was some sort of altercation that Peggy missed because she was so intent on forcing enjoyment, a true struggle considering the awful picture that was showing, but she noticed Angie getting up and walking out of the theater, followed quickly by Bucky. Steve was hunched over doing something hidden by his jacket, and then he followed Bucky, so Peggy followed Steve. 

Peggy was ready to fight Bucky Barnes, lay him out just for looking at her girl wrong. For Angie, Peggy would fight the whole damn world, one boy from Brooklyn did not scare her. But she was blindsided by Angie’s confession, the same lover who wouldn’t even look at her sideways outside their small apartment just all but admitted what they were. Peggy saw the discomfort in her eyes, understood what this was causing Angie, so she had slide them sideways being vague enough for misunderstanding before Angie had to expose herself too much even as a warm feeling spread through her chest.

She felt like a cup of hot cocoa on a winter day, these two boys knew, Angie told them, if Peggy lost everything there’d still be two more people in this world who knew what Angie meant to her. The feeling was, well it was indescribable, tasted like triumph and little like love.

Then the bubble popped and reality came crowding back, were Stark’s people watching them even now? They couldn’t be having this conversation here, out where anyone could overhear. It was dangerous for all four of them it seemed. So Peggy moved it along, and once she and Angie were home she pulled shut all the curtains in their small sanctuary.

She had planned on telling Angie immediately but after tonight one thing was very clear. Angie was worried, she was more anxious over what the two of them were doing then Peggy had thought. Angie was a good catholic girl in name to be sure but neither she nor her family put much stock in anything outside of Sunday mass. But looking now it was obvious that Angie was terrified that they’d be discovered, even after telling Bucky and Steve, even after catching them in a very compromising situation, Angie still had been deeply mistrustful of them. 

The thing was, Peggy wasn’t sure that what they were was as a well kept secret as Angie thought it was. It was little things, like the comment Angie’s older brother made about Peggy being his sister, and when Angie had protested he had muttered ‘well I know she’s not your sister.’ The look in Peggy’s parents face when she had told them the neighborhood of their new apartment. Hey two birds with one stone, it was both closer to their work and the women’s college, and also in a neighborhood where two women, or men, or whoever living in sin wouldn’t raise too many eyebrows. There was Angie’s mother considering look that she sometimes leveled at Peggy, and the brief two months where she was very chilly towards the girl she had practically half raised. Alma wasn’t chilly anymore, having come to an apparent conclusion after those two months, but there was still something very direct in her eyes when she watched Peggy. 

But somehow Angie still imagined that the two of them were the soul of discretion.

Thing was that either Angie or Peggy was very very bad at reading the people who knew them best. And Peggy was pretty sure it wasn’t herself. Then again Angie did pick out two queers from across the room at her work. Then again again considering the neighborhood the odds had been with her no matter which pair of men she picked.

And round and round it went, Peggy got barely any sleep, her mind picking at the facts like a logic puzzle. By the time Angie started getting up for mass, Peggy was exhausted and had a headache. Most of the time she went with Angie to mass, not out of any sort of religious sentiment but more out the fact that Marco and Alma liked it when she came, and she liked making Angie’s parents happy. Today she told Angie to give her apologies to her family and to say that she was sick, and went Angie got back the two of them would meet the boys that the park. A bad idea if Stark really was watching but Peggy could see that Angie was adamant on it being a public place and hopefully she’d be able to watch Stark’s people right back if they were there.

Peggy finally managed to sleep a few hours before getting up and getting ready in time to walk with Angie to the park. On the walk Peggy wished she could sling her arm around Angie and show the whole world she was her best gal. She put her hands in her pockets instead. 

When they got there the park was pretty empty, which was not shocking considering it was more of a grassy lot than a true park. A group of boys where play some game that seemed equal parts stick ball and boxing down at one end and at the other Steve and Bucky lounged in the grass seemingly cloud watching. It was an acceptable meeting place in Peggy’s opinion, enough open space that no one could get within hearing distance without being seen. Plus it looked good, two girls meeting the boys who took them out last night, perfectly normal. 

Peggy nudged Steve with her foot, before sitting down gingerly in the grass, she didn’t want to have to wash her dress for another day or two and grass stains couldn’t be allowed to set. Steve grinned up at her before sitting up. Angie settled next to Peggy, she was trying to smile but Peggy could see the tightness around her eyes. 

“Fellas,” Peggy drawled in greeting. 

“Dames,” Bucky replied mimicking Peggy’s tone.

Then the four of sat in silence, none of them seeming to know what to say next. Peggy fiddled with the grass, plucking three long pieces and plaiting them gently into a ring. If they were alone, if they were unwatched she’d give it to Angie, but instead she tore it up. 

Finally Steve broke the silence.

“Right so sorry ‘bout last night, that was,” he cleared his throat and turned a bit pink, “well that was no way to treat a pair ladies such as yourselves.”

“Well um,” Angie was turning a bit pink herself, “sorry for asking you to go with us under false pretenses. But it’s not like I could’ve been real straightforward.”

Bucky was looking at the sky still, Peggy could tell he was about mortified about the whole thing as Angie had been. The mortification made Peggy like him better, although she still didn’t care for the way he had looked at Angie the night before.

“I just thought,” Angie’s voice wavered and Peggy wanted to grab her hand, “I just thought that you know we could, um, well, we could help each other out. Um sorry” she tapered off in a nervous giggle.

“What kind arrangement you have in mind.” Bucky was leaning up on his elbows, looking at the three of them with hooded eyes and a cocked eyebrow.

Something in the way he said it made Peggy want to punch him back down into the ground.

“Bucky which being a pill.” Steve snapped, “Listen we have some things to work out but we’ll give you a call, I wouldn’t mind being pals with you gals.”

As he said it he gave a half smile to Angie and Peggy before turning a look of irritation on Bucky, who had flopped back down onto his back.

“Sorry he’s being such a jerk.” Steve added.

“Um well if that’s it then,” Peggy said going to get up, thinking this whole meeting had been a waste of time and would only make Angie feel bad. 

“No, wait,” Bucky sighed sitting back up on his elbows “wait I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Steve’s right I’m a jerk. It’s just this stuff, what we’re doing, what you’re doing, it’s dangerous. How do we know you can keep your mouths shut.”

“How do we know you can keep yours shut?” Peggy snapped before Angie had a chance to speak. “Like you said, it’s dangerous for all of us. We’re not the ones who got caught fondling each other in a theater.”

Bucky, Steve, and Angie all turned bright red and looked at anything besides Peggy. 

“Listen, all I’m saying is we know how dangerous it is, otherwise we wouldn’t even even consider running around with a couple of boys from the village. What Angie’s suggesting is we all just make it a little less dangerous. I can’t say it’s my favorite thing she’s ever thought up but it ain’t stupid either.”

Steve and Bucky were looking at each other, seemingly considering and trying to have a silent conversation. Angie was looking Peggy through her eyelashes in a way that made Peggy wish they were back home already and that they didn’t have to get to Sunday dinner. 

“So what?” Bucky asked “We go steady but we’re not really going steady.” 

“Yeah” Angie says, her voice much steadier now she knows Peggy’s gonna back her play, as if Peggy would do anything else in front of other people, “We can go on double dates and if anyone asks we have person we can say is our main guy err gal in your case. So’s people won’t whisper. I know you live in the village like we do but I also know you grew up over by where Pegs and mine families live and I’m sure your ma’s will be real happy to know your steppin out with a nice catholic girl.”

“Yeah okay, that makes sense.” Steve’s eyes are still considering and it looks like he and Bucky are still trying to communication through telepathy alone. “How about this, how about we take a week and think it over and meet back here next Sunday afternoon to let you girls know? I mean it’s not every day a girl asks me to be her main squeeze.”

His smile is just twisted enough that Peggy thinks there might be a little bit of self deprecation there. Which she doesn’t understand Steve’s small but he’s sharp as whip and much kinder and for all he is an ass Bucky looks at Steve like he hung the moon.

They all agree though, and then go their separate ways because the girls have to get across town for Sunday dinner. Being too sick to go to mass is one thing, but if Peggy or Angie were to miss Sunday dinner than it better because they couldn’t physically drag themselves over to the Martinelli’s apartment. 

-

Dinner is good, Alma Martinelli and Amanda Carter managing to turn what little they have into a feast that can feed both families like they do every week. Peggy’s Ma even made a pot of chicken soup for her to take home and reheat to make her feel better. After the weekend that Peggy had the whole dinner feels like a healing balm, relaxing both her and Angie as they eat and yell at boys and hear about everyone’s week.

After eating Peggy’s Father pulls Peggy aside out of the dining room into the hallway. He looks down at her seriously, his brown eyes the same as Peggy’s own. The happy glow inside Peggy’s chest faded again.

“A man came to visit us earlier today. He was from the government and had question. What kind of trouble are you in Margaret?” 

“Not trouble exactly,” Peggy lied “Just moving up in work, they have to know you’re trustworthy. They want me to handle phone calls to and from government buildings, real important stuff.”

The lie just comes to her out of nowhere. All their lives Angie has been insisting that Peggy is a horrible liar, when really Angie can read Peggy like no one else can. Peggy is a rather good, accomplished even, liar. Most people will believe what she is say most of the time. 

“Yeah well be careful Peggy,” he hesitates, the worry is palpable in his voice “You know you girls can move back home, hell you can share a room. Your mother and I just want you two to stay safe.” 

And it’s there, Peggy and Angie’s secret that no one in family talks about but Peggy can’t help but know that they know. But Peggy wouldn’t give up their little apartment for all the safety in the world.

“We’re fine, but we know.” She says quietly and her father nods before the two of them slip back into the dining room.

-

When Peggy and Angie are finally back in their apartment getting ready for bed Peggy decides to do something about the tension in Angie’s shoulders, then tension she’s carrying in her own. 

Peggy is already in her nightclothes but Angie’s still dressed. She’s slowly taking out the pins in her hair, there’s something intimate about watching her do this so Peggy waits until she takes the last one out, then run her hand gently down the other girl’s spine. Feeling the scratch of the wool from Angie’s Sunday best dress against her fingertips, feeling the curve beneath the thick fabric, and the way that her breath hitches from that simple touch. Then she’s running both hands down Angie’s side, sliding the zipper down to her hip. She slips her hand inside, running her fingers across the girl’s stomach covered in the thin slip, moving up to touch the lace edges at the neckline, then pulling her hand back out of the dress.  
Peggy steps back and allows Angie to turn and face her, her face glowing in the dim room, her blue eyes bright and her lips red, she’s already breathing a little heavy, although Peggy isn’t much better off. Peggy doesn’t have to say anything, Angie just lifts her dress up and shimmies it over her head before letting it fall to the floor, now she’s standing in front of Peggy in her short slip, panties, and stockings. She’s pink but she doesn’t get embarrassed when Peggy looks anymore, now she just smiles enjoys the things that it does to Peggy.

Peggy puts her hands back on Angie’s sides, smoothing down sliding over the cotton that hugs her hips, over the narrow stip of uncovered skin on her thighs to the tops the stockings. They’re real silk, Peggy saved six months to get them for Angie for her birthday and Angie only wears them every once in a blue moon. Peggy sinks to her knee so she’s eye level with Angie’s hips and leans down to press a kiss right above top of the stocking on each thigh. Starting with Angie’s left leg Peggy slowly rolls down the silk, sliding her hands along as she’s pushing down the stocking until she reaches her ankle. Peggy pulls it forward to lift her foot off the ground and then pulls the stocking off. Then she repeats the action with the right leg.

It’s undressing for bed, it’s as much a part of sex as the main event, it’s an act of worship at the altar of Angela Martinelli.

When she’s down taking off the stockings, Peggy sits back on her heels and looks up at the girl in front of her. She’s done this before, but even if she did a thousand more times, Peggy doubted that Angie would lose the dark lustful look, would lose that hitch in her chest like it’s hard for her to breathe. Peggy suddenly grabs her by the hips and pulls Angie forward with a sudden jerk, then playfully bites Angie’s hipbone through the cotton which earns her both a gasp and then a giggle, lightening the mood, making her girl smile. 

“Take off the straps,” Peggy says referring to the cotton slip.

Angie does and then Peggy pulls it down her body until it falls to the floor. Now Angie’s standing in front of her in just her panties. As she stands up she starts at Angie’s ankles and runs her hands all the way up Angie sides until she reaches Angie’s ribs then pulls her in for a kiss that lasts until neither one of them can really breathe. When they break apart Angie’s clearly done with standing quietly because she yanking off Peggy’s nightgown and pushing them towards the bed between kisses that are so hard and delicious that they will leave their mouths bruised in the morning. 

Then they’re on the bed and Angie is sliding her lips down her body and pulling at Peggy’s own underwear and then world just fades to Angie between her legs and her fingers in Angie’s hair and the soft sounds that the two of the them are making. 

It all feels like god and Peggy’s a true believer.


End file.
